Economy

Life on Guyana’s border with Venezuela

By |

The forcible removal of Venezuela’s President Nicholas Maduro in January 2026 still remains fresh in the minds of hundreds of Guyanese who live along the border between Guyana and Venezuela. It is almost as vivid as Venezuela’s referendum held in 2023 and the 2025 election in Venezuela which “appointed” a governor for a large portion of Guyana known as Essequibo. Those two specific developments fueled fears in Guyana of a military takeover by the Venezuelans. Many Guyanese living in border communities migrated briefly to the country’s coastal areas while others who remained in their villages, more conspicuously displayed their country’s “Golden Arrowhead” featured on the national flag. News of Maduro’s removal was nevertheless met with mixed reactions even in Guyana.

Click here to read more

Antigua & Barbuda

In the Caribbean, Women and Girls Face Daily Threats of Sexual Violence; Getting Justice is Another Ordeal

By |

For many Caribbean women, few places are safe from the threat of rape or sexual violence. Women report experiencing sexual violence in their workplaces and being violated by people in their towns and villages. Many times, the places that should be the safest for women are the most dangerous: their own homes. Homes are where many children–mainly young girls–are targeted for grooming, molestation and rape by a family member, neighbors or other people they know. Sexual violence of women in the region is so prevalent that Caribbean nations accounted for five of the world’s top 20 rape rates in 2019, according to the World Population Review, which studies demographics around the globe.

Click here to read more

Crime

In This South American Nation, Rapes of Women, Young Girls, and Migrants are Rampant

By |

Victims Often Abandon Their Quest To Put Rapists Behind Bars; Police Are Slow To Act

Clad in all black, the teary-eyed woman could barely compose herself in the witness box of Guyana’s High Court. The mother of the rape survivor was confronting her child’s rapist once again, this time to read her daughter’s letter. 

Fewer than a dozen people, including friends and family of both the survivor and the rapist, gathered in the Georgetown court for the sentencing. Oswald Bedlow, 37, was found guilty of raping a 15-year-old girl, the daughter of a family friend, in December 2022. 

“I would never be able to trust anyone anymore after what Uncle Wally did to me,” the sobbing mother read.  Through her mother, the survivor said she remained traumatised, unable to trust and maintain relationships. The incident affected the entire family who, after she was raped, had to relocate to a new home. 

The scene outside the courtroom before Oswald Bedlow was sentenced to 16 years jail

Bedlow had taken her on a drive.

Click here to read more